Archive for April, 2015

I was very tempted yesterday to buy a cup of coffee at work, but I resisted and found a pot brewed in the building. Then I was tempted to have my partner walk downtown to meet me at work and go out to eat, but I went home and made us one of our favorite meals-a chicken plantain stew. We did go out for the baseball game and had a beer. I feel okay about that spending.

Our roof is supposed to be put on Tuesday. I don't know how long it will take, but we are super jazzed to for it to finally start. Then we get to pay for the rest of it

My partner is really unhappy at his job. It's not his dream job, he's doing it for the paycheck. He'd much rather be a musician, but he regular job doesn't leave much time for that. We are trying to get into a place where we are not reliant on his paycheck, or at least a much lower paycheck. I am okay knowing that this process will likely take 5 years. He would much rather it take 5 months. Everything will work out one way or another, but we've started again being very vigilant about the extras again.

The next two big purchases we would like to make are more soil for our garden beds and a modest building to house our new lawn mower in. It looks like we can get one for about $200, but I would like to wait just a little bit before spending that kind of money.

My credit score has taken a superficial hit in the last couple of weeks. My balances are high because of the first half of the roof and my partner bought a new laptop. We put it on my credit card because I have 0% interest for 12 months, and he'll pay over the next 4 months until it's at zero. I just scheduled the payments for the first half of the roof, but the second half will go on the cards soon. I hope to get my credit score stabilized by the end of the year.

I'm looking at ways to earn some "snowballs" to add to the next down payment fund. It would be nice to have $40,000, but it would also be nice to buy something next spring and it is impossible to have that about by next spring (unless we rob a bank. Which we won't do.) But every little bit helps, and who knows what will be on the market in a year. Right now we have 6070.75 saved. Not too shabby! I hope to add $1000/month, starting next month. We'll see how it goes...

My (very ambitious) goal for April was to increase my net worth by $6,112.98. I was able to increase it by a very respectable $4,578.63. My investments were down, but my rental property value went up. Plus there was a marginal decrease in the mortgage.

Next month's goal is $6,131.69. I am on track to increase my net worth by about the same as last month. I'll take it. If all goes well, next month should see my net worth reach the half million mark Pretty jazzed to see that number!

We had a planned spendy weekend Easter weekend. N's best friend's family visited us for the day on Friday, and then N's father visited Saturday and Sunday. I have no problems spending money to live the high life with friends and family, especially when we don't get to see them often.

But then we just kept on living the high life. We have eaten out waaay too much and have drunk waaay to much alcohol. I am more concerned with how this is affecting my waist line than my bank account, but we have really got to get back on board.

One big decision we made these last two weeks was to not renovate the basement. We have decided to saving that money so that we can buy an investment property. The first plan was to buy the next investment property in Spring 2016, renovate Spring 2017 and then buy a third property spring 2018. No it looks like we don't want to renovate the basement at all. Except maybe to put a second bathroom in. It would be nice to have another bathroom in the house.

We're still playing around with numbers for the next property. We can easily afford a single family house that costs $90-100k. The rent we would get would cover the mortgage, insurance and have about $200 left over. But if we can stretch our savings to cover a duplex in the $120k+ range, then the profit margin is by far greater. So we're really working on budgets and savings.

The plan is to purchase enough rental properties so that the profit after paying the mortgage each month will allow N to quit his job (or only work part time). I love my job and have no desire to leave, but would like the option to not have to work if I decide in the future.

There is still no ETA when the roof will be put on, so we still have some time to stock up cash for it so we have less to transfer on the balance transfer. We'll totally have it paid off in 10 months regardless, but it will be nice to have our only debt be the mortgage again.